


The Aftermath

by yourPerfume



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: (not explicit) - Freeform, Abandonment, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Happy Ending, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:46:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23989840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourPerfume/pseuds/yourPerfume
Summary: Harry and Hermione disappear after the Battle of Hogwarts. Ron is left to pick up the pieces.
Relationships: Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley
Kudos: 12





	The Aftermath

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first published work and it was written in like 30 minutes. Not beta read - if you spot mistakes, please feel free to point them out! I will probably edit this when its not midnight and I'm less sad.
> 
> May 5th, 2020: It has now been edited! I am no longer sad, and also way, way more happy with this version. 
> 
> Stay safe <3

Two thirds of the Golden Trio disappear in the immediate aftermath of their biggest victory. There’s a lot of talk in The Daily Prophet, and Molly Weasley very nearly doses her youngest son with Veritaserum - just on the off chance that he knows more than he’s letting on. Ron just repeats again and again, countless times, that he really doesn’t know where they are. He knows Hermione is in Australia somewhere, trying to get her parents back; and Harry - Harry’s legitimately vanished. Ron highly suspects a Hallow or two to be involved, but those are secret, and secret they shall remain.

So they bury the dead without them. Tonks and Lupin are laid in their graves to the sound of their son crying, no godfather in sight to provide comfort. Andromeda Tonks curses Harry Potter’s name and remembers some of the old Black ways of dealing with disrespect.

Ron attends his brother’s funeral in a sea of redheads, but with two pieces of himself missing. He cries that night like he has never cried before, feeling abandoned and alone and like nothing will ever be okay again. He’s inconsolable, more than he ever was on the Horcrux hunt, where he was hungry and afraid. Molly listens by the door, afraid to consider that Harry and Hermione might not come back.

But they do. Thankfully. It’s September before Hermione again steps foot on English soil. She’s homeless, pennyless and parentless and takes the first floo to the Burrow. Molly would have chewed her out, honestly, she would, if just Hermione looked a little more rested and a little less hungry. A round of tea is procured, with generous helpings of firewhiskey and hugs from Ron, and Hermione stutters through her tale. Her parents didn’t remember, not really, but she had told them the story anyway. Their reaction was not kind. Angry they turned her away, unable to deal with a child they could not remember having, could not remember ever loving. She wandered Australia for a bit, trying desperately to find some sort of alleviation of her grief. It was a while before she understood that the only help would be found with her friends and wizarding family. Thus, her trip back to England and straight into open arms.

After Molly has made the bed and stuffed Hermione underneath many more blankets than is technically required, she pours two glasses of firewhiskey, sans tea this time. She sits down with Ron and asks “What now?” and Ron doesn’t really know. He doesn’t really understand, but he wants Hermione to be okay, so he reckons that whatever that takes, is what comes next. And Molly tells him, with tears in her eyes, that he's has grown into quite a lovely young man. Rons straightens his shoulders, proud until his mother continues: He might want to put the romance on hold for a bit just to let Hermione figure out who she is now, before mixing the trouble of a relationship. Ron gets a little quiet, but eventually agrees. He meant it when he said “whatever it takes”.

Ron and Hermione heal. They move out of the Burrow that January, into Freds half of the flat above Weasley Wizard Wheeses. Hermione starts looking into getting her NEWTs, studying frantically when she figures she can take them the coming summer. Ron helps out in the shop, and speculates on his chances for making the Auror Training Corps without any NEWTs. Eventually he just owls Kingsley, who says Ron could probably murder someone in broad daylight and get away with it, much less get into the Aurors. So Hermione gets her NEWTs and Ron starts training. Things are good and Molly's nerves calm a little.

Harry is gone for a year. He shows up suddenly, unexpected (and uninvited) for Teddy Lupin’s first ever birthday. He makes it one step into Andromeda’s garden before he’s hexed. What follows is a very uncomfortable conversation with frustratingly few answers and a lot of “please Andromeda, I’m back for good, I’m staying, I promise, please, just let me be here, let me be his godfather”. He is served no cake, but he does get to hold Teddy, so it’s fine.

Ron and Hermione don’t ask for explanations. They hug him, and they spend a night in the same bed, revelling in the feeling that they are all safe and present, for the first time since sixth year. Harry moves into Grimmauld Place the next day, and watches from the sidelines as Ron and Hermione do what they were made to do. Within five years Ron's on track to become head Aruor, red robes not quite matching his hair. Hermione tackles all the backwards notions of justice within the Ministry with the same brand of ferocity that kept Rita Skeeter locked in a jar for way too long. Harry fixes Grimmauld little by little, and then becomes and uncompromising, unashamed layabout. He has bloody well earned it.

It takes time, but they make it. Harry stops having nightmares. Hermione stops writing copious unsend letters to her parents. Ron stops watching his friends like they might disappear the moment he looks away. Eventually Ron and Hermione move in with Harry. The Daily Prophet has a field day with that one, but the trio pays little mind. They find salvation and peace in each thers company, in their chosen family. Dating of any kind is a rare occurrence, but it’s sort of okay. Harry and Hermione don’t miss it much, and Ron makes do with a one night stand every once in a while. Him and Hermione never get back together, but no harm, no foul. Their life is good, it’s peaceful, and it’s exactly what the three of them need.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, please leave a kudos if you like it <3
> 
> On another note, I've started a bigger project, keep an eye out (who knew fucking up your uni app could be this productive? not me, that's for sure).


End file.
